Swedish athlete persecuted for rainbow fingernails

Sports officials like Avery Brundage in the USA were very much against athletes or spectators protesting against anti-Semitism, concentration camps, or other atrocities of Hitler’s Third Reich. Such protests, they said, would be “political”. And Olympics, and sports in general, should be “non-political”. Meanwhile, there were nazi swastikas everywhere at Olympic venues. Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl made the official Olympic movie. Not only German athletes and sports bureaucrats, also many foreign athletes and sports bureaucrats did nazi salutes. All that was not political in the mindset of Avery Brundage and his ilk.

Jewish athletes passed over in 1936 Olympics to be honored in Berlin. U.S. sprinters Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller prevented from competing at the Berlin games will be posthumously honored at the 2015 European Maccabi Games there: here.

Their stand in support of civil rights and against racism reverberated internationally.

The photograph of their protest has become one of the most recognised images in the world, after that of the first moon landing.

The unexpected silver medalist, 26-year-old Australian Peter Norman, wore a button of the “Olympic Project for Human Rights”—a civil rights protest movement set up by black athlete Harry Edwards before the Games—in support of his two fellow athletes.

These three athletes were punished harshly for daring to be ‘political’. While Avery Brundage, of 1936 Hitler Olympics infamy, was still Olympics big boss. Not political at all [sarcasm off].

According to the 21st century successors of Avery Brundage, it is not political to have Coca-Cola, linked to death squads in Colombia, as Olympics sponsor. Having a choir sing a song against that death squad link in front of a Coca-Cola billboard, however, is political. So, the police arrive and arrest the choir.

From 2010 in Canada to 2013 in Moscow, Russia. And a Swedish woman’s fingernails.

“It felt right,” she said, also telling Reuters that she got the idea when she saw an actual rainbow over Moscow. “I wouldn’t say it was a protest more of a statement of what I think.”

“When I first came to Moscow, the first thing I saw when I opened the curtains was a rainbow over Moscow and I thought that was a pretty good sign,” she said, continuing to say that 200 meters runner Moa Hjelmer had also done the same.

Recently however, athletics officials have advised Ms Green-Tregaro not to repeat the nail-painting gesture in the world championship high-jump final at Luzhniki Stadium on Saturday.

Anders Albertsson, the general secretary of the Swedish athletics federation, spoke to reporters outside the stadium on the issue.

He added: “The code of conduct clearly states the rules do not allow any commercial or political statements during the competition.”

Mr Albertsson said the Swedish delegation had not put pressure on Ms Tregaro to change the colour of her fingernails, but “understood from Swedish media her nails are now red.”

Ms Tregaro should hope now that, after anti LGBTQ bigots persecuting her for rainbow fingernails, there will not be now anti-socialist bigots claiming that her red fingernails are supposedly a sign of support for a workers’ revolution.

He said: “If she knows she might be breaking the rules, that’s a decision she takes, we don’t have any objections on how they paint their fingernails”.

Though the intention of the petition, opposing the homophobic law in Russia, is honourable, I have doubts about transferring to Vancouver. We have seen what happens there to choir singers singing about Olympic sponsors-death squads links. And there are homophobes in Canada’s governing Conservative party, like in the governing party in Russia.

This video from Canada is called Stephen Harper and the Homophobe -O- Tory Party.

I am a Christian, and to me the rainbow signifies something special between God and mankind. The rainbow reminds me of His promise. For those of you Christians, I’m sure you might all relate. I can’t wait until He returns! 🙂

Indeed, rainbows may refer to Christian symbolism; or to equal rights rainbow flags; or to a rainbow the athlete saw in Moscow just before the championship; etc. Like, as I said, red fingernails may remind some people of socialism, some others of … etc.